Holocaust survivor H.G. Adler's 1962 novel tells the story of the Lustig family, who during an unspecified war are labeled "forbidden" by the authorities and are relocated to the walled city of Ruhenthal, where they will gradually disappear.

"The novel's streaming consciousness and verbal play invite comparison with Joyce, the individual-dwarfing scale of law and prohibition brings Kafka to mind, and there is something in the hypnotic pulse of the prose that is reminiscent of Gertrude Stein."—NYTBR

"A tribute to the survival of art and a poignant teaching in the art of survival. I tend to shy away from Holocaust fiction, but this book helps redeem an all but impossible genre."—Harold Bloom